On the Complexity of Distributed Decision Problems,

Abstract

This document studies the computational complexity of finite versions of the simplest and fundamental problems of distributed decision making and it is shown that, apart from a few exceptions, such problems are hard (NP-complete, or worse). Some of the problems studied are the well-known team decision problem, the distributed hypothesis testing problem, as well as the problem of designing a communications protocol that guarantees the attainment of a prespecified goal with as little communications as possible. These results indicate the inherent difficulty of distributed decision making, even for very simple problems, with trivial centralized counterparts and suggest that optimality may be an elusive goal of distributed systems.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 1983
Accession Number
ADA137443

Entities

People

  • J. Tsitsiklis
  • M. Athans

Organizations

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Algorithms
  • Boundaries
  • Communications Protocols
  • Computational Complexity
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Distributed Computing
  • Environment
  • Guarantees
  • Language
  • Observation
  • Optimization
  • Polynomials
  • Probability
  • Sensor Networks
  • Signal Processing

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Applied Combinatorial Optimization and Logic Circuit Design.
  • Systems Analysis and Design
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.